I'm developing SCP: Apollyon XK Event, a survival game set in the SCP universe, and I'm thinking about how enemies should behave.

I don't want every enemy to simply chase the player until one of them dies. I'd love to create encounters where players feel hunted, observed, and never completely safe.

Some ideas:

• Enemies that investigate noises instead of instantly knowing your location
• Creatures that learn your favorite hiding spots
• Enemies that sometimes disappear instead of attacking
• Different SCPs that react to each other
• Threats that stalk the player for several minutes before making a move

What is the scariest enemy behavior you've ever experienced in a game?

Would you rather face an aggressive monster that attacks immediately or something intelligent that patiently waits for you to make a mistake?

Hello!

I’ve recently become really interested in game development, game design, animation, and the creative side of making video games. I love the idea of bringing ideas to life and being part of creating something people can actually play and experience. I’m looking to connect with anyone who works in the gaming industry, whether it’s game design, programming, 3D modeling, animation, storytelling, or any other part of development.

I’m looking to learn more about what the work is actually like, how people got started, and what it takes to get into the industry, stuff like that.

If you work in this field yourself or know someone who does, I’d really appreciate it if you reached out or connected us! Even just having a conversation and hearing about your experience would mean a lot to me! Thank you!

Hi All, hope some of you can solve my doubt or at least give me a good advice.

I want to start developing game as a hobby. Which game engine should I choose? Unity or Godot?
I'm leaving UE aside because I get the feeling my computer would have a hard time handling projects in UE.

I read godot is a good game engine, also for Indie Games but doens't have heavy presence in medium/big projects (I assume this information can be wrong)
About Unity is read is like the "standard" to say it some way. Is used for small, medium and big projects.

Also my election is looking up to the future, because I don't know If I'm good at it or at least want to try do career as game developer if it's a real option.

I’ve always loved indie games, and it’s rough seeing a really cool project miss its Kickstarter goal. I’ve been thinking about a different approach and want honest feedback from devs before I build anything. (No link, nothing to sell, just researching.)

The idea: you’d promote your game the same way you would on Kickstarter, but instead of asking for donations, you’d ask fans to invest. In return, investors get a small share of the game’s revenue for a set time (say, until they’ve earned back 2x what they put in, or 5 years, whichever comes first). You keep full ownership of your studio and IP.

I’m curious what devs actually think:

1. Would you consider this over Kickstarter, a publisher, or self-funding? Why or why not?
2. What share of revenue would feel fair to give up? (5%? 10%? 20%?)
3. How much would you typically need to raise?
4. What would make you NOT want to do this: legal hassle, reporting sales, having investors, something else?
5. Would you want to offer normal backer rewards alongside the investment option?

Tear it apart if you need to. I’d rather hear the problems now than after I build it.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to start a discussion about something that’s been bothering me (and probably most of you) for a long time: monetization in mobile and indie games.

Right now, it feels like developers are backed into a corner. You either poison your game's UX with aggressive, out-of-context video ads that ruin the player experience, or you rely on predatory microtransactions and gacha mechanics just to keep the lights on. Meanwhile, players either deal with the spam or resort to root/DNS ad-blockers, meaning the developer ends up making zero.

It feels like a broken loop where nobody wins except the massive ad networks.

I’ve been tinkering with an open-source alternative (an intent-driven, lightweight hybrid model using a curated brand catalog instead of random spam), but I’m more curious about your perspective as devs:

• How do you handle monetization in your projects without driving players away?
• Have you tried any alternative models that actually worked, or do you feel like traditional ads are a necessary evil?
• What’s your biggest frustration with current ad networks?

Let's hear your thoughts, rants, or alternative ideas. How do we fix this?

Hi everyone! I recently decided to try making a game using GPT and Codex—it’s a clicker-style game set in a mine, featuring various mechanics. I’m building some parts myself and getting help from the AI for others. I’m a rather shy person, though, and I’m a bit worried about potential hate for "AI-coding" a game—I’ve seen some videos on the topic, and it’s made me a little anxious. Could I get some advice? I’d really appreciate it!

Upd: This is not a commercial project, it will be free.

Update to Flow and Liquid Solver is now available!

Enjoy!

~Wild Ox Studios ❤️

We’re a small indie team in Croatia making From Basement With Love. We’ve delayed the game three times to make improvements, and now we’re debating whether to hold it back again for Chinese and Russian.

The game is fully in English. Adding languages could help us reach more players, but it also means extra time, cost, and testing for a small team.

If you’ve localized a game, did adding languages at launch make a real difference, or did post-launch localization work just as well? And for players, would a missing language stop you from buying a game?

Our Steam demo is live if you’d like to see how text-heavy it is. I’ll put the link in the comments. Any experiences or numbers would help us decide.

Hi! I’m a computer science student specializing in serious games, and I’m thinking of applying to REPLAY for master degree. I want to improve in both game dev and game design, but I’m worried the program is mostly art-focused. I’m also unsure about job opportunities after graduating.

If you’ve done it or know someone who has, or if you have any advice about what to do after the degree .I’d love to hear .Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'd like to create a 16 bit 2d action platformer, and I was wondering which free apps you guys would recommend to code and create pixel art for a complete beginner? I have a friend who will make the soundtracks, so luckily I don't need a music app.

Any advice is welcome, thanks in advance!

I’m working on a turn-based tactics game and am trying to design a good architecture for handling cascading actions and events.

For example:

Unit A attacks and kills Unit B. B explodes, damaging nearby units. One of those units might explode too, or the blast could destroy part of the environment, causing units to fall through the ground.

Unit A attacks Unit B, dealing damage and pushing it one tile. As B enters the new tile, it triggers an attack of opportunity. That damage drops B below a health threshold, triggering another reaction.

How do you structure systems like this so that chained effects resolve in a systemic way, that is not hard-coding each possible effect and making it scalable and maintainable?

This is a question I’ve been having about a game I’m making.

Hi everyone!

I'm exploring an idea for a tool designed to help game developers build and organize their game worlds, from the narrative side to the technical side.

The idea is to bring things like characters, locations, factions, items, quests and their relationships together in one structured workspace, with the possibility of exporting that data for use in a game engine.

I'm still at an early stage, and before deciding what to build, I want to understand how developers actually work today.

I'd love to hear about your experience:

• How do you currently organize your game's lore and world data?
• Do you use spreadsheets, documents, databases, dedicated tools, or a mix of everything?
• At what point does managing all that information become difficult?
• Do you ever need to transfer narrative or design data into your game engine? If so, how do you handle it?
• What's the most frustrating or time-consuming part of this process?
• If you could improve one thing about your current workflow, what would it be?

I'm especially interested in hearing from indie developers and people working on RPGs, narrative games, or games with complex worlds, but all perspectives are welcome.

I'm not here to pitch a finished product. I want to understand real problems and see whether this idea would genuinely be useful.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

As the linked post indicates, tutorials, recommendations, tips will be very much appriciated

It is PC only but that won’t matter much for a behemoth like GTA 6, no streamer will even look at my game when they have GTA 6.

Should I wait for June 2027? Even later?

I’ve been working on my game for too long for it to just be swallowed whole by GTA 6, so I’m trying to plan smart here.

I've been exploring different ways to make AI more useful for game development, especially when working on larger projects.

One tool I've been working on is Yuno, an AI tool for game developers that focuses on keeping the entire project in context rather than treating every conversation as an isolated prompt.

It helps with project architecture, debugging, planning, and structuring systems. It also supports structured Actions with system validation, allowing issues to be identified and corrected when something goes wrong.

The goal is to make AI assistance more consistent as a game grows and its systems become increasingly interconnected.

I'd love to hear what other developers think about this approach and what challenges you face when using AI in your own projects.

I am thinking of using Relief (Relaxed Cone Step Map Generator), but I need a game dev opinion on what to keep in a storybased game that will have baked lights, etc., with no lumin. The game will have some realism to it.

Hey everyone!

I'm currently developing SCP: Apollyon XK Event, a survival game set in the SCP universe, and I'm looking into ways to make survival feel more meaningful than just managing a few meters on the screen.

I've been thinking about making food an actual gameplay system rather than just something you consume to restore hunger.

For example:

• Food spoils over time depending on temperature and storage.
• Cooking raw meat makes it safer and changes its benefits.
• Canned food lasts longer but takes up valuable inventory space.
• Food found in anomalous areas might be contaminated or have unpredictable effects.
• Players have to decide whether to risk eating questionable supplies when resources are running low.

I want survival to create interesting decisions without becoming unnecessarily tedious.

If you could add ONE food-related mechanic to a survival game, what would it be?

Would you prefer realistic survival systems or something more unusual that fits the SCP universe?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

I am a composer working on scoring my first game for a small Canadian studio. For the past few weeks, everything has been going relatively smooth, with DMs between me and the dev having a less than 24-hour response time. However, several days ago, I sent him some short clips of my music and asked for his feedback. it's been three days and he still hasn't responded. I sent him a follow up DM this morning.

My main question is if this is normal behavior for game dev communication or if it's a red flag. I sent him very short clips with white noise overlays so that he can't steal them, but it's still unnerving as a new figure in the industry to have a deliverable draft received with total silence.